Standards make everyday life run smoothly. You rarely notice them: the credit card that works in any corner of the world, the Wi-Fi signal that connects a remote village to the cloud, or the vaccine vial that fits syringes from Dakar to Delhi.

When standards work, they build trust. They free people and firms to focus on creating, trading, and innovating, confident that the systems around them will hold. When standards fail, the effects are immediate and draining. Payments are declined, signals drop, vaccines spoil—and instead of being productive, people spend their energy just meeting their basic needs. Standards, in short, are the hidden infrastructure of modern economies—and they have never been more important.

Developing countries today must contend with a thicket of increasingly stringent international standards, a product of globalisation and rapid technological change. Using standards—and shaping them—is now a prerequisite for export growth, technology diffusion, and the efficient delivery of public services. Yet standards are too often overlooked by policy makers, especially in developing countries.

World Development Report 2025: Standards for Development provides the most comprehensive assessment of the global landscape of standards today and how they can be used to accelerate economic development. It offers a practical framework for countries at all stages of development. Countries at the earliest stage should adapt international standards to suit local conditions when needed, whereas at more advanced stages, they should aim to align domestic markets with international standards. Meanwhile, all countries should author international standards in priority areas.

Report by the World Bank